17 November 2011

Proactive Man coloring page

This year I'm teaching Study Skills, in addition to Communications and CTE - Technology & Engineering. When my mom heard I was going to teach a class about how to study and do well in school, she said, "Oh, so you can teach the kids how to pull all-nighters writing papers while drinking Mountain Dew and watching old movies in the background?" (Don't let her wording fool you. Only four of my all-nighters were to write papers, the others were editing movies.)

Anyway, as part of the curriculum we're reading Sean Covey's (Steven Covey's kid) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. I think the book is great, it has a ton of valuable insight, but let's face it: the kids who most need these skills won't glean them from a book or an imploring lecture. So I'm trying to mix it up, to somehow trick them into learning and applying the habits. For habit #1, Be Proactive, I created a sort of superhero that they get to color in. There are also several labels referring to pages in the book, so students have to look up what that part of his super suit does and write it down.

Maybe it tricked them into being more proactive, maybe it didn't, but at least they got a chance to color.